With more than $2 billion in debt coming due amid the worst real estate lending market in decades, the nation's fifth-largest strip-mall owner is moving to conserve cash and sell off properties it hopes will fetch at least $700 million.

President-elect Barack Obama's decision to add $300 billion in corporate and individual tax cuts to his stimulus proposal should help a wide range of Chicago-area companies, particularly homebuilders and others hit hardest by the recession.

Focus

It's a new year, and conditions are certainly different than they were 12 months ago. We asked local entrepreneurs to share the resolutions they're making to survive in '09, and gathered expert advice for each.

Given how rapidly economic conditions deteriorated in 2008, some entrepreneurs wish they could turn back the clock and make different decisions. Crain's asked three what they would have done differently if they could:

During the warmer months, it's easy for fed-up motorists and CTA riders to ditch their usual mode of transport for bikes. But has the ice, snow and sleet of the past several weeks shoved newbie cyclists off the road?

With co-founder David Axelrod moving to Washington as senior adviser to Barack Obama, Eric Sedler, 40, has a new title: senior managing partner of ASK Public Strategies in River North. To keep current:

People

Greg Hinz

Ask any African-American teenager what kind of experience he's had with white Chicago cops, or any white woman what goes through her head when she sees a group of black men walking toward her on a dark street, and you'll know that race is never...